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1, still here after 2 years
Depends on how you define fail. I’ve been a part of around 20 operating startups and helped launch dozens more.
Some didn’t raise money and didn’t go far. One exited for around $10 mil, one for $16 mil in stock, one exited for over $500 mil, one went public but wound up selling off the assets to different companies. Some turned into lifestyle businesses. Some are sitting in a folder on my desktop waiting to come to life.
I’m now consulting for a business which is a failure in motion. In this case a dysfunctional executive team just keeps raising money on vaporware and can’t get a product to work because they’re too busy fighting amongst themselves.
I think any business that generates enough revenue to pay a team and not screw investors in the process is a success.
I also think it’s not a failure to put a billionaire’s (or big fund’s) money to work creating jobs and making something good, even if the ROI falls short.
I’ve been a part of 4 early stage startups from pre-seed to series A, one failed…. The pre-seed raised $500k and mismanaged funds to where the startup ran out of money in less than 6 months. Founder was 23 at the time. Also, I lost about $60k because they couldn’t pay for services rendered and the equity was worth less than the paper it was written on. The other startups had solid leadership and networks to generate traction, capture venture partners, and sales. Super highly volatile. I still work with setups but on a fractional advisory level.